The Sleepwalker
by Donnie-o
Summary: During a training session with Master Splinter, the turtles are interrupted by a sleepwalker. When she wakes up, her story is like something out of a dream. But the problems they face to help her find her way back home bring nightmares of their own...
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: You guessed it. I do not own the Ninja Turtles! Tadaaa!_

_Note: This story is full of funny quotes from the new series that I thought to be hilarious. This is more for my own entertainment, simply chock-full of the quotes that I love (and happen to hear incessantly from my little sister, who likes to speak almost completely in ninja-quotes) Hope you enjoy it!_

_**The Sleepwalker**_

The freshly lit candle flickered against the draft of the chamber. Donatello, standing in one of the four corners, and facing away from the center of the dojo, thought, _this chamber is way too breezy. Maybe if I installed a better ventilation system, we'd get fewer drafts through here…_ but his train of thought was cut off as Master Splinter remarked, "Donatello, where is your focus?"

All four of them, the teenage brothers, were standing in the same position. Upright, each occupying one corner of the dojo, and facing outward. Not a one of them knew precisely which brother occupied which corner. This wasn't their usual training session. They were all well practiced with sparring, but rarely would Master Splinter make them wait before the sparring continued. If they did, special instructions always followed the wait. Donatello had the feeling that this would prove to be a different lesson altogether. Leonardo seemed to be unfazed by the delay in the sparring match—or at least he grumbled less than the other three. Raphael and Michelangelo had been arguing, and Raphael was ready to blow off some steam, and didn't mind complaining about it—to which Master Splinter responded with a sharp remark about being patient. Michelangelo was just digging it—as usual.

Their Master Splinter—a giant, soft spoken rat—had finished lighting the candles surrounding the dojo. And this wasn't weapon's practice—their Sais, Bo, Nun Chucks, and Katanas were all lying off to one side. The object of the exercise would soon be explained.

Blowing out the match that he'd lit the candles with, Splinter informed, "My sons, tonight our training will be simple sparring. However, you will be blindfolded. Be prepared for anything. I will endeavor to disrupt your focus during your battles. First I will whisper the name of your appointed sparring partner. The point is to develop your other senses, and therefore you must find your partner." Splinter clapped, and the room was bathed in darkness.

Michelangelo squatted down, and spoke incredulously over to Donatello. "Dude!" he exclaimed in a joking tone. "You put in the clapper?"

His question was answered with a swift strike to his left wrist from Master Splinter's walking stick. "Ow!" He yelped.

"Michelangelo," Splinter reproached, "The other rule I am imposing as a calculated challenge is _silence_. To find your enemy one must listen, and feel. Talking shall be banned this training session." To everyone he spoke, "Turn your masks around." The four brothers complied, and turned their masks to one side so that their masks became a blindfold. Soon names were all whispered in each brother's ear. Donatello heard, "Your partner is Raphael." He waited for another couple of moments, for Master Splinter to give them the go-ahead.

"Begin," came the command.

Unbeknownst to his sons, Splinter stood in the middle of the dojo, as silent and still as an old tree, waiting for his opportunity to strike. The silence began to be broken by movement. Michelangelo, ready to finally expend his energy, turned sharply around, and headed for the middle of the dojo, expecting his opponent—Leonardo—to head that way too. What he didn't realize was that Leonardo stood silent, listening for any tell-tale sounds. Michelangelo's signature step alerted him, and he began to move. However, poor Michelangelo chose to walk in the direct path of Master Splinter. He made to about three feet in front of the spry old rat before he found himself flying to the opposite end of the dojo, having been sent there by Master Splinter's well-aimed throw. Leonardo could tell when he landed, because Michelangelo couldn't help but let out an audible 'oof.'

Leonardo smiled, and began to head in his direction.

Raphael performed almost as bad as Michelangelo on the 'patience' scale. He felt about ready to burst with the need to opponent-bap. He headed began walking slowly, listening for Donatello. He smiled when he heard Michelangelo fly overhead, and land on the ground. _Serves ya right, Mikey,_ he thought. Donatello wasn't walking. He listened intently for Raphael, recognizing the grunt that came from Michelangelo, and guessing that he'd just fallen victim to Splinter. Donatello focused on Raphael, and what his footsteps sounded like; heavier than his other two brothers,' and with less of a purpose to it than Michelangelo. He listened hard... ah! There, to his right. Raphael was moving slowly, by the sound of it. Donatello stepped lightly toward him. Upon hearing Donatello move, Raphael stopped. Bad choice. Raphael finally found what it felt like to fly, courtesy of Master Splinter. However—perhaps for his amusement—Master Splinter must have decided to help Raphael find his partner, because his partner just became his landing pad. Donatello, not expecting Raphael to suddenly land on him out of the blue, crumpled into a heap and both unfortunately let out an 'oof.' This time, Michelangelo had to smile.

But his smile didn't last for long. His distraction had cost him the element of being prepared, giving Leonardo the advantage of honing in on his opponent, and taking him by surprise. Michelangelo heard the slight movement sound, and dodged, barely avoiding being caught in the jaw by a powerful hand. He struck out blindly (of course) but found that the place he thought his brother had been occupying had just turned up empty. Then he promptly fell to the ground from a hard shove from behind.

He had to bite his tongue, because he wanted to say, "All right, Leo, that's it!" He would have certainly received another wrist-whack from Master Splinter's walking stick had he not disciplined himself.

Donatello had much the same problem that Michelangelo did. After picking himself up from being landed on, he stood still to listen and figure out where his opponent had gotten off to. Raphael smiled as he listened to Donatello peel himself up off of the floor. _He won't even see this coming. Literally._

With that, he sent a barrel-punch Donatello's way. Donatello heard the movement just in time to block it, but it brought him off balance. That was when Master Splinter chose Donatello as his next victim. A carefully placed walking stick put the already unbalanced turtle once again in familiarity with the dojo floor, but luckily Donatello refrained from 'oof-ing' this time. Master Splinter then took the same place that Donatello had just been, and turned now to Raphael, posing as Donatello.

Raphael didn't notice a thing. He moved to strike again, throwing a well-placed dragon-punch. Or what would have been well-placed had the right person been there. His fist met air, and another fist met him. Raphael became acquainted with the ground right along with Donatello.

Leonardo had been having a great time making a Mikey Sandwich out of his opponent, until Master Splinter stepped into the picture. He stood in two sparring turtles' proximity, and merely waited for the fighting to come to him. He managed to get his tail around Leonardo's waist, and knock him to the ground, when the sparring match between all the brothers was interrupted by one of the chamber doors opening—an automatic device that Donatello had rigged up so they didn't have to worry about opening any doors. A gust of wind blew out the candles, and the darkness became absolute._ Yup, _thought Donatello, feeling the breeze, and hearing the sputtering of the candles, _I really gotta install that new ventilation system._

All four turtles and the rat paused in the training session to listen.

Small, light footsteps sounded in the room. One of the candelabras holding the now blown-out candles tipped over, making a lout clatter that sounded throughout the chamber.

As the brother's listened, the four turtles heard something like a dull thwack, followed by another something like a groan before Raphael had the brains to take off his blindfold, clap, and turn on the lights.

Master Splinter had pinned a human, and not just your average thug. It was a girl, probably around the age of eighteen, and by the looks of it, completely unconscious.

"Well, that's strange." Leonardo commented as he adjusted his headband.

Michelangelo rolled his eyes. "Dude Leo, that's the understatement of the year."

Raphael and Donatello both nodded. "Who is she?" Raphael asked.

"Yeah, and how did she find this place?" Donatello put in.

Splinter stood. "She was not conscious when I attacked. I did not feel her muscles tense up as I brought her to the ground, nor did she seem to relax after she hit, like a person will when knocked unconscious. These are natural reactions, and when surprised, there is no way to keep from reacting as I described. She was not awake when she walked in."

"Whoa, that's totally strange." Michelangelo remarked.

"So she just… sleepwalked in here?" Donatello queried in a disbelieving voice.

Leonardo leaned forward and examined her. She had long brown hair, pulled back into a severe braid, and she wore a white, full-body, form-fitting jumpsuit, that zipped up in the front. She wore no shoes. Attached to her left temple was a weird round, silver-looking device slightly smaller than an Oreo cookie, and another attached to the right of her torso, just below the rib-cage. "Hey Don, do you know what these are?" Leonardo pointed to the strange devices.

Donatello came forward, and looked at them. He shook his head. "Your guess would be as good as mine, Leo. I'd have to take them apart in order to even begin to understand what they are, but that would mean removing them. I don't know what that would do to her."

Leonardo nodded. "Well, she doesn't look dangerous in any case. Maybe we should make her comfortable until she wakes up." He picked her up, and began walking toward the "living room."

Michelangelo looked up quickly. "Not the couch! I haven't finished watching that DVD—"

Raphael stepped over, and slapped him over the head. "Can it, Mikey! You can finish watching it later. We need to figure out how that chick got in here in the first place."

Michelangelo walked over to his now occupied couch. "Awww man!"

Donatello approached the couch with a blanket in his hand, covering the girl with it. Splinter had brought a pillow, and put it gently under her head.

"Let us wait until she awakens." Splinter said. He sat down cross-legged, and began to meditate. Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael sat down to do the same. Michelangelo rolled his eyes.

­_Boring!_ He thought. He made his way over to the coffee table where his ipod and earphones were laying and turned on his favorite music. He called to the three meditating turtles, and the meditating rat, "Somebody get me when she wakes up!" With that, he reclined in a chair and began bouncing to the beat.

Leonardo rolled his eyes. _Yup, that's Michelangelo! _He settled in to meditate, but his eyes flashed open when he heard a sickening groan from the girl on the couch. She curled and tensed up in an apparently huge amount of pain. Her gritted teeth, and her clenched fists—turning white—indicated the intensity of the pain she felt. Whacking Raphael who'd sat beside him, he said "Raph, look!"

Raphael looked at her and then frowned. "What the shell…?"

Donatello got up and went over to her. Her face looked white…or blue. Blue? Donatello put his hand out to see if she was breathing. Nothing. He called out "Guys, she's not breathing!"

Leonardo and Raphael looked at each other. "Uh oh!" Raphael exclaimed. They got up and beat feet over to her.

Splinter rose to his feet, and walked over to her as well. He noticed something. "Donatello, those things are blinking." He pointed at the strange devices on her temple and torso.

"Ummm…" Donatello looked at the devices. He saw that the muscles directly around the devices were spasming visibly. "Yikes!" He exclaimed. And the devices themselves seemed to have activated. Not only did they blink, but they also glowed.

"That's it!" Raphael exclaimed. "I don't care what these things are. They've got to go!" With that he removed them both from the poor girl's body. The moment they lost contact the girl's skin, they stopped blinking and glowing. They'd left puncture wounds that welled up with a little blood. But other than a little blood, removing the devices seemed to be the trick to getting her to relax. Her breathing returned to normal, and her face became calm.

Raphael narrowed his eyes. "Man, I feel sorry for the punk that did this to this chick." He pulled out his sai, and twirled it a little to get his point across.

Leonardo nodded, "Yeah, this girl has been seriously mistreated."

Michelangelo noticed the hubbub around the girl and walked up. "What's the haps, dudes?"

"Aw, Mikey, you don't wanna know." Raphael shook his head, and handed Donatello the two devices. "See what you can find out from these."

"Way ahead of you!" Donatello affirmed, his brain already starting to take over. "They've either got to be set on a timer to do whatever it was they were doing to that girl, or…" He walked over to his worktable, and turned on a light.

Michelangelo plodded along with Donatello. "Or…?"

"Or, they could be remote activated, which means that these two little devices would be sending and receiving a signal from the point of origin." He put the two little devices under a magnifying glass, and took out a small screwdriver.

"Which means…?" Michelangelo urged.

"It means that if I can calibrate my scanner to pick up the signal from the origin, we'll be able to find whoever did this."  
Leonardo joined in. "I get the feeling that she's not the only one under these…torcher devices. Maybe they're a way to control people. I'd sure like to find out whoever made these and stop them."

Splinter overheard what Leonardo had said, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "My son, only after observation and analysis, when the proof is on the table, may you move on to conclusions."

Michelangelo furrowed his eyebrows again. "What?"

Donatello spoke up without looking away from his work. "He means Leonardo is jumping to conclusions."

Leonardo's face grew puzzled. "What are you saying, sensei? That we shouldn't go looking for the person that made these… things?"

Splinter turned. "A wise ninja does not go seeking an enemy he does not fully understand."

Leonardo bowed his head in submission. "Yes sensei."

"Yo, guys! She's wakin' up!" Raphael called from the couch. The others walked over.

The girl's eyes were open. She looked around quizzically, and then frowned. The turtles, cautious about coming into full view all at once—having had this experience before with their friend April—hung back behind the couch, as they didn't want this girl fainting just yet. The girl sat up with a grimace. The look on her face said 'where am I?' but the girl wasn't talking.

Michelangelo, impatient as ever, spoke up first. "Hi!" He said enthusiastically.

This got the girl's attention. She swiveled around swiftly and nearly fell off the couch. "Ahhh!" She cried.

"Nice goin', shell for brains." Raphael muttered to Michelangelo.

The girl stood up from the couch. She wasn't tall. Most humans seemed to be a whole head or taller than the turtles. This girl stood to be slightly taller, but by a half an inch at the most. She looked around wildly, as if looking for an escape route.

Leonardo held up his hands in an attempt to appear less threatening. "It's ok. We're not going to hurt you."

This helped a little. In fact, her frightened look was replaced by a look of recognition. She spoke for the first time. "I know you…" It wasn't exactly a statement. It had a bit of a question to it, but it meant at least she wasn't afraid of them.

"Hey, she talks!" Michelangelo exclaimed.

Suddenly, the girl's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fell into the coffee table.

"Man Mikey, where's your 'off' switch?" Leonardo asked as he ran to the girl. The other's followed.

Splinter put his hand on her forehead. He shook his head. "She is very weak. This is not fainting from surprise, but from exhaustion."

Donatello looked at him quizzically. "Exhaustion?"

"Do you think it was the devices?" Leonardo asked him.

"I'm not sure, but I definitely plan on finding out!"


	2. Chapter 2

The next time the girl came back to the land of the living, she'd been asleep for a day and a half. Michelangelo grumbled a bit at first about his ejection from the couch, but extra solitary practices from Master Splinter put a stop to that very quickly. Leonardo and Michelangelo were sparring in the chamber, while Donatello worked on the devices, almost tirelessly. Raphael worked over a punching bag with much gusto. Leonardo had set up the bamboo sticks again, practicing balancing while moving on the unsteady sticks. Occasionally Michelangelo would throw something at him for fun to see him dodge it. Eventually, Leonardo got fed up with the flying missiles, and he caught the last one that Michelangelo threw and boomeranged it back at him, hitting his unsuspecting victim in the head. Michelangelo retaliated by leaping up to the bamboo sticks, and pulled out his nun chucks.

"Ok, Leo. Let's dance!" He shouted, enjoying the moment.

Leonardo pulled out his double Katanas, twirling them a bit, and said, "You sure you're up to it, Mikey boy? You couldn't balance on a rock!"

Michelangelo responded by leaping towards his green brother and nun chucked the bamboo stick he stood on, making it wiggle enough that it forced Leonardo to jump and find another bamboo stick to balance on.

"Yo bro, you're too slow!" Michelangelo taunted.

"Enough!" Splinter called to the two spatting brothers. "The girl awakens."

Leonardo gave Michelangelo a hard shove, and in order to recover himself, Michelangelo did a back flip, landing on two bamboo sticks. "Hey!"

The two brothers spatted all the way up to the couch, where the girl stretched and yawned, and the other's had already gathered. Splinter brought her a nice hot cup of tea. The girl accepted it, and sat up. After taking a sip or two of the brew, she let out a long breath.

"How long have I been out?" She asked with a small voice.

They hesitated. Didn't she notice that they were not, well, normal? She looked at them as if she were not afraid, nor even questioned it.

Finally Donatello spoke up. "Nearly two days,"

She rolled her eyes, and muttered to herself, "Geeze, you'd think my body would be tired of sleeping by now…"

The five looked at each other in confusion. "Uh, come again?" Raphael asked.

The girl looked up at him with intense eyes. "It was how he controlled me. He couldn't get me to surrender to his mind-washing, so he kept me in a state of constant unconsciousness so that I would do his bidding."

Another pause. Did this girl speak in riddles because she enjoyed it?

Fed up with the riddles—he got enough of those from Splinter—Michelangelo inquired, "Who is 'he'?"

The girl shrugged, her face becoming troubled. "I don't know who he is. He wouldn't ever tell me his name. Whenever I'd ask him who he was, he'd always tell me to call him 'father.'" She shook her head. "But I already had a father. I refused."

Splinter spoke up, "What is your name, young one?"

The girl smiled for the first time. "I knew you were going to ask me that. It's Ryanne."

Something nagged Donatello. "Hang on," he said in a confused voice. "The first time you woke up, you told us that you knew us. And just now, you said that you knew that Master Splinter would ask for your name… how?"

Ryanne smiled ironically. "It's the reason he kidnapped me in the first place." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Actually, it's a very long story."

Michelangelo jumped up. "I'm all over that!" (He liked long stories.) In less than a second he'd parked it in front of her as if it were story time. The others settled in, and Raphael said, "We ain't goin' nowhere."

The girl took a last sip of the delicious tea, and set down the cup. "Alright, then." She brought her legs up in a half criss-cross. She began, "My mother called it a gift. My father called it dangerous. It turned out that they were both right. See, I have something that I call precognition. It's not really like ESP, or stuff like that. It's almost like memories of things that haven't happened yet. For example, I whenever I'd start a new year in school, I'd automatically 'remember' my friends, but people that I'd never met before." She smiled once more, "As you might imagine, I'd always turn away from topics like, 'do you remember how we even met?' I'd never told anyone about my gift. See, aside from the niceties of knowing who your friends are before you even meet them, I'd have to deal with some pretty horrific, detailed dreams. They were always about crime. I won't go into it."

Michelangelo interrupted, "So you'd know if someone was, like, about to rob a bank, or something."

Ryanne nodded. "Yes. And I'd meet these people on the streets as I walked from place to place. I'd '_re_cognize' them, but really, it was '_pre_cognition.'"

Donatello nodded, "Ah, I see." He'd always had a knack for big words. "So what did you do?"

Ryanne sighed, and looked down. "I was tired of seeing bad things happen. I knew who the people were, but I felt powerless to do anything. I knew it wasn't safe to take matters into my own hands, but… well, I couldn't help myself. As I grew older, I became able to control what I saw. I'd sort of, well… 'ask' my precognition to show me things. Who my new teachers would be, which ones would I like, and stuff like that." She laughed, "Actually, it sort of became somewhat like a game. I'd ask more and more broad questions, like instead of 'who is going to be my next boyfriend,' it became 'who _could _be my next boyfriend?' Sort of like challenging myself. But really, I only had control of my precognition half of the time. I always saw the crimes. The blood, the fighting, the stealing, the abuse. It was everywhere. It almost ate me up, to see how much hatred people had for each other. But, I got a brilliant notion one day. Why not ask my precognition who I could help that would keep a crime from happening?"

Lights began to turn on for Donatello. "So you helped someone, and they found out about your gift, am I right?"

Ryanne nodded. "Close. I didn't help people on a huge scale right away. Most of the time, I'd just make harmless suggestions, everyday ordinary little statements and stuff. You know, played it on the safe side at first. But I guess you could say I was desperate. When my bad dreams began to happen less and less, I figured it would be ok to do more. I thought that the more I did, the less I would dream about."

Splinter added, "A wise man once said, 'To be a great warrior, one must have balance in all things.' I believe I may be right in saying that you overcompensated."

Ryanne looked at him with a bright expression on her face. "I knew I was going to like you." She joked. But her expression grew dimmer and contemplative, "Yes, you're correct. I overdid it, several times. I was confused, because my precognition had shown me the same man in my dreams over and over again. He was constantly being killed. At first I thought that my dreams were just dreams, and not my gift, but when I saw him in real life, I knew that he was about to die. I was panicked. I'd never had the same person in my dreams die over and over again, and in different ways. I was thinking that if I prevented his death once, the cycle of dreams would stop. I was given the perfect opportunity too. The first time I'd ever watched him die had been an accident—several times he'd been murdered, and one time he killed himself—but I thought that if I could just keep him from dying once, he wouldn't die again. The accident involved a taxi, on the corner of 23rd and Walker. Another aspect of my precognition was that I somehow recognized the time that things were about to happen. I'd just get this very 'familiar' feeling, and I'd just know when something was about to happen. When I felt it this time, I ran to the corner, watching for the man. I spotted him coming down the sidewalk toward the corner where I was standing. He looked very distracted, and not focused on where he was going. He was about to cross the street when I heard the squealing of the wheels of the taxi that had a drunk driver at the wheel. It was going out of control, fish-tailing and swerving. However, it was not in view yet, and it would be too late when it turned around the corner. I did what I had to, to keep the man from being hit. I pulled him away from the curb and down the sidewalk. He struggled and yelled, but I got him away, just in time for the taxi to come careening around the corner, and slam into the side of the building."

Leonardo commented, "So that's when he knew about your gift."

Ryanne shook her head, and rubbed her forehead. "No. I took off before he could ask me anything."

The turtles and the rat were all poised interestedly at the edge of their seats waiting for what happened next. Ryanne paused, gathering her breath. "I should have known, I should have realized what was going on." She gathered her nerve and said, "He wouldn't stop dying in my dreams. He was still going to be killed… and I wanted it to stop. I thought that if I just kept him from dying, one of these times I'd just stop dreaming about it. So I'd find him, and tell him to not go into such-and-such place, to not do such and such a thing, all in an attempt to keep the events that lead up to his death from happening." She left the point out in the open, hoping that someone would see her mistake.

Leonardo picked up on the cue. "And so by keeping the guy alive a little longer, you allowed all the different possibilities of his death to be able to happen."

Ryanne nodded. "Exactly! I'd keep him from dying one way, but there was always another possibility. And so, the inevitable happened. His curiosity got the better—or worse, I should say—of him. There is no 'better' side to this dude. He kidnapped me, to find out how I could possibly know the events in his life. It turned out that he was some brainy scientists dude with a vendetta, and that he figured out how to use me to his advantage. He tried to brainwash me at first, make me love him so that I would do everything in my abilities to keep him alive, and wealthy. When that didn't work, he kept me asleep. It was a perfect condition, actually. All he'd have to do is ask me a question, like "Who is my enemy," and somehow he'd find out. I think he had something attached to my brain that made it possible to see what I was dreaming."

"Hang on a second," Donatello said, "He can't have kept you asleep forever. Eventually your organs would shut down. It's the "Use it or lose it" rule. Atrophy would make your body degenerate."

Ryanne nodded, "Yes, and that's why he'd let me wake up for a while. He set a perimeter around the area I was allowed to go, and if I crossed the boundaries for too long, he'd hurt me. And that's when he'd always try his brainwashing. For some reason, I think my precognition helped keep me safe from that. I don't know how long I lived like this. It's hard to keep track of time when you're asleep. But eventually I figured out how to think while unconscious. I wasn't aware off what was going on around me, but I think my precognition helped me remember that I was asleep. It'd always take me a while to realize that I was dreaming, but when I did, every time he asked me a question about his future, I'd be able to re-ask my precognition differently. Like one time he asked me a question about the best way to go about something he was after. I re-framed the question to 'what is the _worst_ way to go about it?' and my mind would still have those dreams, but they'd tell him wrong. I think he was beginning to figure it out, but I don't know for sure. As soon as I could manage, when he asked me a question, I asked my precognition how I'd be able to find friends to help me out of my situation. It showed me sleep-walking through tunnels. So the man took that to mean that he needed to let me go, and he'd be able to get what he wanted."

Raphael nodded. "And ya found us." He reflected a moment, then said, "And that's it."

Michelangelo got up to his feet, "Yeah, we'll help ya out!"

Suddenly Donatello snapped his fingers. "That's it!"

They all jumped.

"That's what I just said!" Raphael grumbled.

"Ummm, what's it?" Leonardo asked.

Donatello jumped to his feet and made tracks toward his worktable. They all watched him for a second.

"Excuse us for a second," Michelangelo said apologetically to the girl. He got up and plodded to Donatello. The rest followed. Michelangelo tapped Donatello on the shell. Donatello was in the middle of examining one of the devices underneath his magnifying glass, and paid no attention to the tap. Michelangelo tried a different tactic. "Donatelloooo… Donatellooo…. Earth calling Donny."

Donatello shoved Michelangelo away with one hand, and then exclaimed, "Aha!"

Leonardo asked, "So, brainiack, are you going to tell us what you're aha-ing about, or what?"

Donatello spoke up for the first time. Pointing to a little pinpoint in the smooth silver device, he said "_That's_ why I wasn't able to find a signal. I figured it was just because it was removed from the girl's body. But I thought if that was the case then—"

"Yeah yeah, whatever! What did you find out?" Raphael interrupted.

Donatello smiled. "How the shell these little devices were even operating! I was hoping to be able to track down the point of origin using the signal that these devices were supposed to be sending out. Of course I based this on the assumption that they were actually functioning on a remote basis. See, they have no power source, so they had to be drawing power off of something. A remote… but that wasn't it. I just couldn't figure it out. It's actually quite a brilliant little device, or would be if it weren't so nasty. Ryanne said that she was limited to a 'perimeter.' At first I thought it was either a time bomb… if worn too long it would do what it does. But then I realized that it couldn't be, because it has no power source. So I looked for a remote receiver device on the chip installed in this little thing, and nothing. Now I know that what happened was closer to my first assumption. It's a device that senses the electronic field that I imagine was set around her 'perimeter.' Once she crossed it, it set off the time bomb."

Donatello pointed again to the little pinhole in the plastic. "This is where it attaches to the body," He pulled out a pair of miniature tweezers, and pulled down a little micro-wire, "It actually draws the power from the person it's on by dialing into the small electric impulses that our brain sends through our body via our nervous system. Once it is pressed onto the skin, this little wire will reach down and link into the nearest nerve. Rather a neat way to conserve energy, and harmless too."

"Yeah," Leonardo retorted, "harmless until they start wreaking havoc on your body."

Donatello grimaced. "Yeah, they were already linked to the nervous system. All they had to do was re-focus the electric pulses sent by the brain. You know, I bet this is how that guy was able to tap into Ryanne's dreams. Since this thing was already connected to the electric impulses the brain gives out, it wouldn't be hard to hook the device up to a computer, and receive images—"

"I would get rid of those if I were you." Said a girl's voice, behind them.

Everyone jumped, and turned around.

It was Ryanne. She'd come up quietly behind them, observing.

She explained. "The man is definitely not stupid. He wouldn't just let me go without some way to keep tabs on me. What if those devices also let him know where I've gone? Then he'll find me… and you."

Donatello shook his head. "These thing aren't sending a signal. They don't even have an energy signature, because they aren't functioning. They have no power source."

Ryanne nodded. "I understand." She frowned a moment or two. "But still, it doesn't make me feel comfortable. He's too smart! He wouldn't just let me go without having a way to get me back."

Michelangelo took her by the shoulders. "Relax! Even if he did find us, he'd have to walk past four ninja turtles, and a ninjitsu master before getting to you."

"Somehow, I don't find the fact that all he'd have to do to get to me is walk past a few turtles very comforting." Ryanne said.

"Hey, listen, we won't let anything happen to you." Leonardo tried to sound comforting, but his pride had taken a little prick.

Ryanne smiled. "I'm sorry… maybe I'm just paranoid. You would be too, if you had a mad scientist after you."

Splinter's face became thoughtful. "Perhaps you would benefit by learning how to defend yourself against an attacker, should one come upon you."

Ryanne's face lit up. "That _would_ make me feel better." She turned to the turtles. "I want to thank you for everything that you've done for me already. I know that this is not very convenient for you, but I know that you can help." Her smiled turned wry. "By the way, I don't know your names. Just because I recognize faces doesn't mean that I can suddenly remember names."

They obliged.

"I'm Leonardo."

"Donatello."

"Michelangelo."

"And I'm…" he paused for effect. "Raphael."

Michelangelo sniggered. "All the good ones end in 'o'."

Raphael pushed Michelangelo over.

"Ow!"


	3. Chapter 3

Despite the fact that Ryanne became anxious about finding her parents, to let them know that she was alright, Splinter asserted, "If this man kidnapped you before, he may do it again, and you may not be able to escape a second time. It is best that you remain down here until we are certain that this threat is no more."

"But I need to let my parents know that I am all right," Ryanne argued. "They have the right to know."

"Your parents have probably filed a police report of your kidnapping, am I correct?"

Ryanne shrugged. "Most likely."

"And so, you letting them know that you are all right will lead them to close the case with the police. Which would mean that your escape would be noticed, and perhaps not by friendly eyes."

Ryanne hung her head, "But…"

Splinter put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Your parents will be happier to have their child back when the threat to her life is eliminated. Have patience, young one. Patience."

The next few weeks, Ryanne fell into the routine of the turtles. She'd participate in the turtle's training sessions, as well as single practices with Splinter alone. She was very weak, and thin, but slowly she became stronger, and more able to defend herself. She spent her evenings planning on how to get rid of her enemy, but one problem always seemed to rear its ugly head. They had no idea where to find him. Ryanne herself said that she had sleepwalked all the way through the tunnel system. The fact that she'd turned up completely exhausted attested to the distance that she'd covered through the sewer systems. They couldn't figure out where to turn to, and the strange devices were no help at all despite Donatello's tinkering.

Another big problem that occurred was Ryanne herself. She was a freaky sleepwalker that roamed during the nights, and sometimes unconsciously wreaking havoc. One night found Ryanne standing on the railing of a small footbridge over the indoor pool, teetering dangerously.

Donatello spotted her first, as he was having a hard time sleeping in the first place. "Ahh! Ryanne! Get down from there!" He called. His noise woke Raphael.

Donatello grabbed her right before she walked right off the edge of the railing and into the water, where she could possibly have hurt herself, and was about to wake her up when Raphael said, "Wait! Isn't it dangerous to wake up a sleepwalker?"

Donatello shook his head, "Naw, that's just an old wive's tale. It's a lot more dangerous to let them sleepwalk." He shook her.

Ryanne's eyes had been half open already, but her eyelids fluttered , and she looked dazed and confused. "Wha—what?"

Raphael held her steady for a moment, while she got her bearings. "You were about to sleepwalk right off the edge of that footbridge, Ryanne."

Ryanne looked at the footbridge apprehensively. "Great." She said. Then she looked at Donatello and Raphael, "Guess I forgot to mention that I sleepwalk a lot, didn't I?"

"Guess so." Raphael nodded.

The next few nights passed by relatively quietly, but after a few days, she had another sleepwalking episode. This time, nobody was awake enough to stop her. She walked into the strange elevator-like room that lead up to the surface, inside a warehouse. Somehow she'd gotten hold of Donatello's remote control to the Battle Shell. She pushed the button that activated it, and nearly got herself killed. By the time anyone realized what was going on, the whole place was a shambles, the Battle Shell was wrecked, and Ryanne herself lay in a pile of newly-made junk, having been knocked down by the Battle Shell. She had quite a few bruises, but luckily no broken bones. The next morning they sat down to have a meeting.

Leonardo provided some calming tea for everyone. Ryanne was shaken up by the experience, Raphael just needed to cool down, Michelangelo would have been laughing had not their Battle Shell just been totaled, and Donatello rubbed his head contemplating the sheer amount of time it would take to get everything in that warehouse the way it had been before the accident. Splinter didn't really need calming tea, but he loved the flavor, and decided it wouldn't hurt to have some.

"All right," Leonardo began, "We've got to do something about your dangerous sleepwalking, Ryanne."

Ryanne rubbed her forehead, and sighed. "Yes, we do." Taking a sip of her tea, she noticed a new bruise on her hand that she hadn't already found.

Donatello spoke up, "Ryanne, how did your parents deal with your sleepwalking?"

"They'd just have me lock my door at night, and that'd keep me relatively safe. I never had a bunk bed, and most of the time, I had all my things picked up in my room, just in case I'd trip on things. Yes, I'd still wake up with bruises sometimes, but at least damage…" She pointed up towards the warehouse, "was kept to a minimum."

Michelangelo pointed out, "Yeah, but look around here. Everything's so open, and there are so many automatic doors. We couldn't lock you anywhere."

"That's not entirely accurate, Mikey." Donatello interjected, "I could rig her up a timer on one of the automatic doors that opened with a code at night, and automatically in the daytime…" He looked around, "Although, that would take a few days, and we have to fix the warehouse and the Battle Shell first."

"Great!" Raphael said, gripping his teacup a little harder than necessary. "So what do we do in the meantime? Post a watch every night?"

"Cool it, Raph," Leonardo said, looking at Ryanne who now looked close to tears. She didn't like all the problems she was causing. "I have an idea. We could all sleep together, with Ryanne in the middle of us."

Donatello rubbed is chin. "That's actually not a bad idea Leo. Sleepwalkers bump into things all the time, especially if the things are in their path. She'd wake us up, and we could direct her back to her bed."

Raphael patted Ryanne on the back, "I'm sorry, Ry. I didn't mean it."

Ryanne smiled at him, "It's ok, Raph," and she then grimaced. "Just don't touch me for a while. I'm covered in bruises."

Raphael lifted his hand swiftly. "Sorry."

They moved all their beds into Master Splinter's quarters, creating a ring around Ryanne's bed. The spaces in between their beds were minimal, so that even if Ryanne were awake, she'd have no choice but to wiggle the beds in order to slide past them.

Their days were now filled with the repairs that needed to be made to the Battle shell. Ryanne did as much as she could, and actually as she had the most dexterity in her hands, she could do a lot of things a lot quicker than the turtles could. She learned how to do things she never thought she'd ever learn to do in her life, like looking into an engine, and be able to identify parts, how to un-ding a huge hunk of metal, and other interesting things.

It took them a whole week to finally fix all the dents, scrapes, dings, and breaks in the Battle shell, but they still had the warehouse to clean up. Nights were now a lot less terrifying. Ryanne did sleepwalk a few times, but each time she was caught by a turtle or Splinter, woken up, and sent back to bed.

The turtles had to admit, it was really hard getting used to having a human living with them, even if it was temporary. She added a new dynamic to the group. She had a sense of humor, and quickly became good friends with Michelangelo. But she also had a serious enough side that she got along with Leonardo just fine, and actually managed to get him to smile once in a while. She loved working with Donatello on whatever he was working on, becoming more and more able to understand what he was talking about, even providing her own ideas, and help with tinkering. He was glad of the help, and let her do some of the delicate work that his own clumsy, three-fingered hands had a harder time doing. But Ryanne also had a spunky side, enough to deal with Raphael's temper, and she could toss a few good remarks when she had to. Needless to say, she pretty much became good friends with all of them.

But there was a downside too. It had to do mostly with bathroom time. She was an eighteen year old girl after all. She'd make sure everything had to look perfect, even if she was only going to be doing a training session with the turtles. Her hair became a curiosity and a nuisance. The turtles never imagined how long it would take a female to make sure every strand was perfectly in place. However that was easy enough to handle. Donatello decided that since he was going to have to build her a door with a lock on it, he could also very easily build her a table and a mirror for getting ready so she wouldn't keep the bathroom all tied up. The mirror was in the shape of a turtle shell, of course. Ryanne got a kick out of that.

She became very fond of Splinter too, and would sit down just to listen to the old wise rat. He became her mentor every bit as much as he was the turtles'. Her life had been turned upside down, to be reshaped in a way she'd never imagined could be possible. He helped her learn to focus her energies, and become calm inside, despite her having been ripped away from all that she'd ever known, having to deal with a man who she couldn't find, but would probably find her instead, and could possibly harm her in the future. Her worries he taught her to shelve, her fears, to closet, her passions to dust off, and her intelligence to sharpen. It was as if she were learning how to organize and clean her mind like she would clean her room.

One night, Leonardo awoke from a bump on his bed from Ryanne. Sleepwalking again. He moved to wake her up, but before he touched her, she suddenly reached out, grasped his wrist, and squeezed. She looked at him.

As they usually did when she sleepwalked, her half open eyes did not focus on their intended target. But it seemed as though she could see through them anyway. "What the…?" He asked to himself. She dropped his wrist, and began to slowly walk again. It wasn't the usual bumbling step that she had when she sleepwalked, but a smooth, very quiet step. He rubbed his head in confusion. With that, he slapped Donatello, who woke up instantly, but very grumpily.

"Aw, Leo," He grumbled, "I was having a good dream too…"

"Shut up a minute, Don," Leonardo countered. He pointed to Ryanne. "Ry seems to be sleepwalking, but she's sleepwalking very… well weirdly."

Raphael woke up, having heard the last thing that Leonardo said. He rubbed his eyes. "Whaddaya mean, Leo?"

Donatello sprung up in a jiffy. "Geeze, Leo, why didn't you wake her up?" He ran over to where Ryanne was silently walking.

"I tried!" Leonardo defended. "But… well, _you_ try waking her up!"

Michelangelo was up by now. "Guys, couldja keep it down? Some people in here are trying to sleep." He sat up, and rubbed his eyes.

Donatello reached over to tap her on the shoulder, but she blocked his hand swiftly, and kept walking. She'd never done that before in her sleepwalking episodes, and she'd never been so agile either. "Whoa…"

Although she remained asleep, Donatello thought she looked very awake to him. If he didn't know better… And she wasn't about to be woken up either. It seemed to him that if he tried, she'd sleep-fight him, and stay asleep. She walked over to his workstation, opening drawers, and closing them, as if she were searching for something in her sleep.

Michelangelo walked over with the three other turtles, and asked, "What's she doing?"

They all shrugged, and watched.

She had by now pulled out the little silver devices that had puzzled Donatello for weeks now. She had also arranged a very small screwdriver, Donatello's magnifying glass, and a regular AA battery on the worktable, and sat down.

"Ryaannneee…" Michelangelo tried, waving a hand in front of her face, but it wasn't any good. She really was asleep, but this was unlike anything they had ever seen. "Well, now what do we do?" Michelangelo asked.

Leonardo pulled up a chair. "We watch, and wait, I guess."

They all pulled up chairs and sat down, watching to see what Ryanne would do.

She had opened up one of the devices, a thing that Donatello had done many times before, but all that there was inside was a little micro-chip. There wasn't anything else there besides the micro-wire that attaches the little thing to the body of its victim. But Ryanne seemed to know things about it in this awake-yet-asleep state that she was in. She pulled out the screwdriver, and found a screw that Donatello had supposed was what was keeping the chip from rattling around in the device—which _was_ partly its function. But Ryanne seemed to know something else about it. She unscrewed the screw.

"This is fascinating. It's as if she's awake…" Donatello commented.

Raphael shook his head, "Yeah, but what if we can't wake her up?"

Donatello shrugged. "Maybe she'll wake up on her own."

"Somehow," Leonardo put in, "I have a strange feeling that she's definitely not going to wake up for a while."

"Yo, dudes, look what she's doing!" Michelangelo had walked around the other side of the table, finding a better angle by which to observe.

Ryanne had disassembled the chip from the device, the micro-wire that was attached to it, and had even opened the chip up—something that Donatello hadn't tried before. Ryanne then proceeded to do the same to the other device.

"If she disassembles both chips, we may not get them to work at all!" Donatello disputed. He got up to try to stop her.

"Wait, Donny." Raphael put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "She's definitely got something on her mind. Just wait."

Donatello grimaced. "But these things are our only clue as to who the man is that kidnapped her."

"But Don," Michelangelo argued, "You can't even get them to work."

Donatello growled a bit.

"Easy, Don." Leonardo warned.

They watched as she finished disassembling both chips, the micro-wire, and the silver plastic coverings. She picked up one of the coverings, and took out the screwdriver again. This time, she was putting things back together. Donatello picked up one of the chip halves. Inside was a little device that looked like a receiver for a remote signal.

"I knew it!" He cried.  
"Shhhhhh!" Everyone retorted.

"Sorry," he said, and quieted his tone. "But I knew these things had to be able to pick up some sort of signal. How else would the time-bomb have been activated? I just didn't think to take the actual _chips _inside these little babies apart!"

Nobody was paying any attention. In fact, Ryanne seemed to almost be done. She had attached the two micro-wires to the inside of one half of the chip, linking it to the remote device that she'd discovered. Then she attached the other half of the chip together with the screw, not bothering to put it back inside its plastic cover. Then she took the AA battery, and attached one end of it to one wire, while attaching the other end of it to the other wire. It began to blink, and glow. It had activated.

Donatello pulled out his scanner. He scanned the energy signature it gave off. "Hey, this thing is giving off a unique energy reading."

"Yeah, but is it picking up any signals from anywhere else?" Leonardo asked.

Donatello shrugged, and fumbled around with his scanner for a second or two more. "Yes! We finally have the point of origin!" The scanner's screen had a red blinking dot.

"Man, Don, why didn't you think of that?" Michelangelo asked. "Are ya losing your techno mo jo?"

Donatello rolled his eyes at Michelangelo. "I did think of it Mikey. But there would have been no point, because I couldn't find the remote receiver. What good would it do to activate the device when all it did was blink?" Suddenly he saw Ryanne collapse.

"Catch her, Mikey!" Donatello yelled.

Michelangelo got there in the nick of time, before Ryanne cracked her head open on the hard stone floor. He felt her neck for a pulse. "Yup, still in the land o'the living."

Raphael shook his head. "If that wasn't the weirdest thing I've ever seen..."

Leonardo walked over to Michelangelo who was still holding Ryanne, "Maybe we should try to wake her up now."

Donatello interjected, "No. She's not sleepwalking now. Just put her back to bed. We can tell her about it when she wakes up in the morning."

* * *

When Ryanne woke up in the morning it was to strange looks from the turtles. She yawned, and stretched. "Good morning, guys!"

Michelangelo folded his arms. Imitating Desi Arnaz from the old TV show 'I Love Lucy,' he said, "Oh Ryanne, you have some 'splainin' to do…"

Ryanne frowned. "What?"

"Yeah," Raphael agreed with Michelangelo, "You were really freakin' me out last night."

Ryanne remained quiet a second or two, and then asked, "Does somebody want to explain to me what it is that I'm supposed to be explaining?"

Leonardo stepped in for her. "It was last night. You sleepwalked."

Ryanne raised her eyebrows. "Huh, interesting. I've never done that before." She said this in a sarcastic tone.

Leonardo held out his three-fingered hand. "Here, let me show you what I mean."

Ryanne grasped it, and he pulled her toward Donatello's worktable. On the surface was the newly rebuilt micro-chip attached to the AA battery. It was still blinking. Ryanne frowned for a moment, "What? Are you saying that I did that?"

"Yeah, it was like having two Donatellos." Michelangelo said, shuddering mockingly. "Now see, two of me would be a different story. That would be a _good_ thing."

Donatello pushed Michelangelo over.

"Ow!" Michelangelo yelped, "What?"

Ryanne chuckled. It always seemed to be a 'beat up on Mikey' kind of day. She picked up the device she had apparently reconstructed, and examined it. Donatello came over and explained. "See, now that it has its own power source, the device is functioning, picking up a signal from the point of origin." He picked up the scanner, and pointed at the red dot. "Which means, we've found him."

Ryanne didn't know whether to be thrilled or terrified. "So now what do we do?"

"We go kick some serious shell!" Raphael said with a grin on his face.

Ryanne looked at Donatello. "Wouldn't the fact that it's receiving a signal now mean that it's also sending a signal?"

Donatello nodded. "Well, yeah." He saw the point Ryanne was about to make. "Ryanne, relax. I seriously doubt that he's even looking for a signal anymore. It's been a long time."

Ryanne shook her head. "He won't ever stop looking for me. And three weeks is not that long of a time." She shivered, and not from being cold.

Raphael growled. "Can we go, now?"

They all looked at him. He had his sais in his hands, and they were gripped so tightly that he was shaking from head to foot. The demon inside him that could be called rage had just been prodded one too many times.

"Easy, Raph." Leonardo said, laying a hand on Raphael's tense shoulders. "I have a plan."


	4. Chapter 4

"Explain to me again why I'm the one doing this," Raphael complained, as he made his way up the manhole. He spoke into a little earpiece connected to their shell cells, cursing Leonardo the whole way up.

"Listen Raph, you're going up because Mikey's no good at this sort of thing." Said the voice in his earpiece. It was Leonardo

"Ha ha." Michelangelo retorted, "Listen to the funny mutant."

"Yeah, sure," Raphael said. "I get to do all the crazy stunts."

"Well, now that you mention it," Leonardo snickered.

"Don't make me come back down there."

"Guys!" Ryanne interrupted. "Couldja quit chatting so Raphael can do his gig here?"

Raphael reached the top of the manhole, and slowly lifted it a few inches, checking to see if anybody was around. "Ok, remind me what it is that I'm supposed to pull off again…"

"Ok, Raph, listen up." It was Donatello. He and the others were currently sitting in the Battle Shell, Donatello sitting at his computer, heading the operation. Donatello had done some scouting, and found the building where the remote signal on his scanner device originated. It was a major company building dealing in the bio-engineering sciences called the BEC. He was able to get his hands on a rough copy of the blueprints and layout to the building, but hadn't managed to hack his way into the security systems data. Donatello told Raphael, "Your job is to go in and create a diversion for Mikey and Leo. You're going to have a wide-angle lens micro-camera on you so that I can see where everything is. The point is to create as much noise as possible so that Leo and Mikey can get to the point of origin. Once they're there, I'll come to get you if you need help, and we'll meet Leo and Mikey at the point of origin."

"You gotta be kiddin' me," Raphael muttered, "I'm a ninja, not a kamikaze." He shook his head. "Leo, why don't we all just get into the building together?"

Leonardo sighed. "Because this building has no outlets to the sewers, and all the doors are locked. Donny says the security code device that turns off the alarms appears to be remote activated, sort of like a garage door. The only way to get in is to break in, and that would set off the alarms anyway."

"So?"

"Think about it for a second! Donny's already completed a scan with our sensors. There are lots of guards. We'd never manage to get to the point of origin together."

"Yeah, so you choose to send _me_ in to get captured!"

"Well, if you are too chicken to do it," Michelangelo taunted, "I could always come and take your place."

"Yeah, right. That's a laugh. You'd botch the whole thing up." Raphael growled.

Donatello made the final arguments. "It's a whole lot easier for one turtle to hide than it is for four. And with me in your ear, I can help guide you past some major obstacles, something that I wouldn't be able to do if we all went together. That, and when I follow up behind you I need to sabotage all of the security cameras, and I won't have time to do that if I'm worried about being hidden." A pause for breath. "Besides. You need the practice."

Raphael, taken aback, said "Moi?" With that he drew in a deep breath. _Ok, here goes nothin.'_

He slid the manhole cover over to one side, and sprung out of the manhole running fast toward the building. _This goes against all my training. _He thought as he ran. The way of invisibility was getting blasted to pieces. With a burst of speed, Raphael ran to the building, and leaped right through a window.

"Enough of a diversion for ya, brainiack?" He asked Donatello hotheadedly after he'd landed.

"Good enough for me." Donatello replied. He continued. "Ok, you're going to head for the point of origin too, but it isn't essential that you make it. You've already set off all the alarms. Head toward your right. The point of origin seems to be below you. Take the stairs. You'll be caught too easily in the elevator."

"Duh," Raphael said. He booked it toward the right, entered through the door marked 'stairs,' and headed downwards. He assumed that alarms were going off like crazy, but he couldn't hear anything. _Maybe they're the silent kind._

He may not have heard any alarms, but he did hear footsteps and shouting. "Raph," Donatello said in his earpiece, "Ryanne just did another heat scan, and she's picked up on several guards coming your way. They're above you in the stairwell."

"Bring it on," Raphael said, pulling out his Sais. He launched himself into a flip, and landed on the stairs above him, bringing him eye-level to the guards.

They were big. They were ugly. They were going to be _so_ much fun.

Raphael spun his sais, "You boys lookin' for me?"

They growled and grunted as big ugly guards will do, and came lumbering after him with their arms stretched open wide. There were about five of them, and they were all oversized land-masses. Raphael dodged one, and did a spinning kick into another. The other landed into one, which landed into one, which landed into the last one. They all fell down several flights of stairs.

"Nothin' like bowling for guards!"

He heard a big grunt behind him. He turned around to see an angry guard coming after him with his arms stretched out again. Raphael smiled. He lunged, and punched. The guy never saw it coming. And in fact, wouldn't see anyone for a while. He'd been knocked out cold.

"Good work Raph," Donatello exclaimed. "Now just head down the stairwell. The last floor is the basement. Walk in, and turn to your left. There should be a way to get down. In the blueprints it looks like a tunnel, but more likely it's a hidden room. Once you get below basement level, we can't help you with the heat scanners. You'll be on your own."

"Yeah well, if any more of those stupid guards come, I don't think that I'll have a problem." Raphael said confidently.

He booked it down the stairs, skipping multiple steps at once, and finally just leaped from stairwell to stairwell. Once he reached the bottom, he went through the door to the basement. It was full of old junk, big boxes, and some more really ugly, big, and stupid guards. But this time there was a whole heck of a lot more of them.

"Uh, Don," He said through gritted teeth, "Didn't you know that this basement of yours is crawling with guards?"

There was a silence on the other end for a second.

"Don!"

"Ryanne just did another heat scan. Apparently the sensors don't work at basement level either."

The guards moved in on him, trying to box him in.

"Great Don!"

"Sorry,"

"When I get out of this mess, I'm going to find you and…" A guard came towards him. But he seemed to be a little smarter. That is he didn't do as much monosyllabic grunting that the less intelligent guards tended to let out. He also didn't lumber, and was a little more agile on his feet. Raphael tried to dodge him. But this guard was quicker than he'd thought. He took a punch to the left shoulder and flew backwards into a pile of boxes.

He groaned.

"You alright, Raph?" It was Ryanne.

Raphael sat up, and said, "Yeah, peachy." As quick as he could he took off, and hid. _It's a good thing I'm a ninja_.

Luckily these guards weren't smart enough to have watched where Raphael hid. They looked around in confusion. This gave Raphael a chance to count them up.

"Lets see… twenty over there, six over in that corner, and fourteen in the center," He muttered to himself. "Geeze, that's fourty guards altogether. And I'm the crazy stuntman to sign up for the job of distracting them…"

"Don't worry, Raph." It was Donatello's voice this time. "Leo and Mikey are already inside the building. They're using the ventilation systems. They're on their way down to the basement. But you've got to keep the guards busy so that they don't get caught."

"Ah, I _knew_ you were going to say that."

"Hey, you're starting to sound like _me, _Raph!" That was Ryanne.

Donatello laughed in his ear.

Raphael would have laughed had he not been trying to hide. He moved around the pile of boxes he was hiding behind. Looking up, he saw that the basement ceiling was covered in pipes. Jumping up to the pipes, he pulled him self above them. There was a six foot gap in between the pipes and the ceiling, probably so that when a pipe needed repairs, the plumber would have ample space to move around in. However, these pipes spread widely apart from each one. He'd have to remember those balancing training sessions with the bamboo sticks, or he'd fall off for sure!

Carefully, and quietly (the way of invisibility also includes the way of silence, after all) Raphael positioned himself over the six guards in the left corner of the room. He frowned for a second, because something about these guards didn't sit right with him. After a moment he realized why. They weren't looking for anyone, like the other guards were doing. They were big, but they didn't look like regular guards. And the fact that they were all standing side-by side in a line wasn't comforting either.

_It's like they're trying to hide something. _Raphael thought.

Donatello spoke up. "Those guards down there seem to be near the area of the tunnel that leads downward. If you can take them out, or get them away from the area so that Leo and Mikey can get to the signal—"

"Yeah yeah," Raphael said impatiently, "I got it. Take out six guards. No problemo."

Raphael made his way right above the guards, and jumped on top of them. His landing effectively disabled two of the six guards, and equally surprised the rest of them. But it wasn't long until they got their wits back and surrounded him. Raphael's first impression was right. They _weren't_ like regular guards. His big tip off? Oh, maybe the fact that they pulled out some Katanas, and some sharp throwing stars. They were definitely ninjas.

If it weren't for the fact that he'd had loads of practice in dealing with multiple ninjas at one time in his escapades with Shredder's foot ninjas, Raphael would have been in a world of hurt. But that didn't mean that he wasn't in for some serious pain. The ninja guards closed in. Raphael pulled out his sais, and began to—as he would put it—kick some serious shell.

The first ninja was a slice and dice, quite literally. The ninja tried to katana his sais into half their original size, but Raphael caught the blades in between the prongs of his sais, and broke the blades in half. With that, he brought up his fist, and taught the guy what it felt like to fly.

But while he was thus distracted from the other three ninjas, they were able to gang up on him at once, utilizing their katanas, and backing him into a corner. The first swing of the sword Raphael dodged, the second he ducked, and knocked the guy wielding it down to the ground with a well placed roundhouse kick. A star flew toward his head, and Raphael just barely managed to dodge it in time.

"There!" Donatello cried, nearly making Raphael jump out of his shell, a dangerous thing for him because he was working on ducking a dragon punch from a goon on the right.

"What!" He yelped.

"There on your left. It doesn't look like much, but the brick is sticking out a little too far. Press it. I'm sure that's what'll lead down to the point of origin."

"But I still gotta take out these guys." Duck, kick, punch, slash with sai.

"Well hurry up."

That was not something Raphael wanted to hear at the moment. He growled, and knocked aside a flying star, and slashed at the ninja that tossed it. The ninja backed away in a jiffy.

"Uh oh," Donatello said.

"Now what!"

"Don't look now, but you're attracting attention."

"Isn't that the point!" Raphael looked around. Sure enough, the other 34 guards that had been previously been confounded by Raphael's disappearance, were now attracted to the fighting like moths to a flame. Raphael was in some serious trouble now.

But Raphael had a brilliant notion. If he did say so himself.

_Time to disappear again._

He leaped back up to the pipes. As expected, the ninja he had been fighting followed him. Leap-frogging (or turtling) between pipes, he made a mad dash toward the other end. This made so much noise that the big ugly guards below him heard, and followed the noise. _That's right. Come this way, and leave that secret entranceway unguarded…_

He jumped down behind a pile of junk. That put off the ground guards efficiently, but the ninja above weren't too surprised. They leaped down five feet away, and by the look of things, they were not all that happy to be playing cat and mouse.

Raphael had managed to take out four by the secret passageway, but there were still two more to deal with, and their backup of living mountains. He sighed. This was not going to be easy. The two ninja had had their weapons either mutilated or lost from Raphael's excellent skills with his sais, but they did know how to throw a punch. Raphael hit the wall, making a dent in it with his shell. That did not feel good!

He had to get up quickly before a leaping kick put his lights out for a while. Raphael moved to one side, letting the ninja fly by, and giving him a good thwack on the back for his efforts too. Luckily walls didn't like ninja feet flying into them either. The ninja slammed his foot against the wall, and fell down, gripping his ankle. Raphael dealt him a final blow just to make sure he couldn't do anything else. A big ugly guard came tumbling toward him. Raphael kicked him back. But not very far back. Raphael still had a ninja to deal with, but it would be harder to get to him in a sea of ugly big buffoons in his way. Raphael took refuge in the stupidity of the guards.

However, that one guard didn't like being kicked, and came at him again, ready to grab and squash the little mutant out of existence with one hand. Raphael felt very sorry to disappoint him, but a turtle's gotta do what a turtle's gotta do.

Rapid punches in the stomach, followed by several roundhouse kicks to the side did… absolutely nothing! The guard threw a punch, and this time Raphael landed into another guard, who grabbed him.

"Not today pal!" He yelled, and elbowed the guy hard in the sternum. The guard let out grunt, and let Raphael go.

He turned back to the other guard. The guards had made a circle around him and the one. It's not like they believed they had much to worry about. He was a lot smaller than they were, and there were certainly more of them. They'd take him out later. But right now, they wanted to see some entertainment. All they had to do was keep him from escaping.

Raphael and the big guard circled each other, looking for an opening. Raphael was beginning to get frustrated. He yelled, and sprung at his opponent.

Punching and kicking, Raphael grunted. "Do me a favor," double handed jab, kick, spin, "and just be a good little mountain and go down!"

No go. The guy seemed to be made of steel. He landed another punch, catching Raphael in the ribs. Raphael flew back into the ring of other guards. They pushed him back into the center.

Along with the pain, Raphael felt his body begin to tire. Ok, the time was for plan C. He leaped over the heads of the guards, and pretended they were bamboo sticks. He leaped from head to head, and finally found a great big pile of junk to disappear into. Rummaging around, he began looking for a bludgeoning object. _Ah perfect!_ A rusty pipe would work just fine. He picked it up.

"Why don't you just use your sais, Raph?" Ryanne asked.

"I don't wanna kill the guards. Just put them out of commission," came the focused response.

And a well aimed blow to the back of the head did the job quite nicely. In a matter of maybe a minute and a half, all the guards were out cold.

"Not bad Raph," That was Donatello. "Very creative."

Raphael threw down his pipe. "There's still that nin—"

Too late, the ninja dropped down on him—much like Raphael himself had done a few minutes ago—and threw a punch into Raphael's face.

"I'm comin' Raph!" Donatello called.

Raphael kicked the ninja off of him, and rubbed his face. "Ok, punk. You ain't gonna be happy when you wake up in the morning."

Raphael pulled out his sais. Coming in for a blow to the torso with the sharp points, Raphael leaped, and instead of hitting the target, the target reached up, grabbed him, and flung him aside like so much spaghetti. He flew into a pile of cardboard boxes. He sprung to his feet, his anger returning.

"All right, that's it. This party's over!" He threw his well aimed sais, which caught on the ninja's clothing, pinning the guy to the wall.

With a final punch to the face, effectively disabling the ninja, Raphael took back his sais, gave them a fancy twirl, and shoved them back onto his belt. That was about the time that Donatello showed up.

"Nice work! Leo and Mikey are already to the point of origin. Come on!"

Sprinting to the corner where the secret door was, Donatello and Raphael found that a section of the wall had opened up, which lead to a tunnel that had steps leading downward. It was dark, and quite a ways down.

"Great. More running…" Said a disgruntled Raphael.

As they made their way down the stairs, Raphael was just struck with a thought.

"Don, what makes you think that the dude is even going to be down there?"

Donatello looked at him. "I'm actually hoping that he's not going to be down there."

That threw Raphael for a loop. "What?"

Donatello explained. "We've gotta hide before he comes. He'll know the building had been broken into, but I sabotaged all of the cameras as I came down so that he wouldn't know where we went. I'm hoping actually that the police would just think it was a regular burglary, and that the guy won't really be expecting us."

They hit the bottom of the stairs. The tunnel was lit up ahead, with an automatic metal sliding door. They headed toward it.

"So we're gonna just catch the guy? No fighting?" He sounded disappointed.

"If it comes to that, yes. But it would be better just to get the guy taken to prison."

Raphael rolled his eyes. Donatello just didn't understand the word 'revenge' very well.

They reached the door, which opened for them.

"Mikey! Leonardo! We're home!" Donatello called.

"Hey! We thought you'd never get here." That was Michelangelo calling from the right corner of the room. He was behind a control consol, watching a screen that completely took up the entire right wall. The room wasn't huge, but it was a very big screen. So far, the screen was blank.

"What are you looking at, Mikey?" Donatello asked.

"I was just wondering how hard it would be to install one of these babies into the lair." There was an air of pleading in his voice.

"No way Mikey."

"Awww…"

Leonardo hung out on the left side of the room. He held Donatello's scanner in his hand, and stood beside another sliding door. He called over to Donatello. "The point of origin is inside here, but the door is shut, and I don't know how to get it open."

Donatello made his way over to the computer consol, while Raphael leaned against the wall.

Punching buttons, Donatello began to shake his head. "Interesting. Somebody took the control for the doors offline. Why would they…?"

Michelangelo strolled by, and looked at the consol. "Hey, I wonder what this button does!" He reached forward to push a red button on the control panel.

"Don't—" Donatello yelped.

Too late. Michelangelo's fingers had already pressed the button. A blue flashing light caught everyone's attention. The huge television screen had turned on.

Images flashed by, seeming to be at random. A scene of cops pulling guns and firing switched to a little girl being nabbed by some evil crook, followed quickly by a vicious and graphic hacksaw murder.

"These must be Ryanne's precognitive dreams." Donatello commented as the images flashed by on the screen.

Leonardo shuddered. "Bleck! Talk about a nightmare…"

Suddenly, the door to the tunnel slid shut, a hissing sound letting everyone present know that the door was air-locked.

"Aw, geeze." Michelangelo muttered.

"Mikey!" The other three yelled in accusation.

"It wasn't me this time, honestly!"

Donatello turned to the computer consol, and began pressing buttons. "Guys, I can't get the door to open back up."

"I got this one." Raphael called out, springing toward the door as he simultaneously pulled out a sai. He worked an end into the small space between the wall panel, and the metal door. The problem was that the door stuck into the opposite wall so far that Raphael's sais couldn't lever anything.

"Would anyone by any chance happen to have a credit card?" Michelangelo asked, walking up behind Raphael—who grunted strainedly with the effort of trying to find a way to muscle open the door. "Maybe we could key this thing open."

"Get real Mikey!" Raphael exclaimed, not in the mood for dumb comments from his goofball brother.

And, of course, as they normally do for the turtles when they get in a particular jam, things became worse.

The vents in the room began to hiss. A misty green gas poured from the floor and the ceiling.

"What the…?" Leonardo exclaimed.

Donatello, being the closest to a vent, began coughing. "A t-trap!" he spluttered.

"No duh!" Raphael yelled, beginning to panic? "Now what, genius?" He dug his sai in deeper. Still the door remained closed. Then he began to feel the effects of the gas.

Donatello dropped to his knees. All four turtles now coughed and spluttered, unable to breathe proper air.

"Guys!" Ryanne called from the headset Donatello wore. "What's happening? Guys?"

By now, now one could call out. The room spun for them, and they all fell to the ground overcome with dizziness. Leonardo had the presence of mind to pull out a katana, but by then the dizzying effects of the gas excreting from the walls overpowered him, and his katana dropped from his hand, clattering against the ground, the noise seeming to make an eternal echo.

* * *

Ryanne's headset dropped to the ground. She had to get them out of there! But how? Jumping out of the Battle Shell, and running towards the building, she thought, _the ventilation shaft!_

She would follow the nondescript path that Michelangelo and Leonardo themselves had taken, through the building's ventilation systems. As she sprang lightly through the now broken window, Ryanne met a rather disconcerting sight.

The ventilation shaft that the two turtles had taken hung high in the air, the lobby ceiling being at least three stories high. The only way to get to it would be to jump, but Ryanne couldn't jump nearly as high as the turtles could. Suddenly a familiar feeling washed over her as she contemplated the near impossibility of scaling the walls to get to the shaft. The feeling she always got when one of her precognitions were about to become reality. She 'remembered' how she climbs up to the shaft…slowly she let her precognition take over.

Grabbing two long and thin broken shards of metal that had been torn loose from the windows as Raphael broke through them, Ryanne moved to the wall she had to scale. Punching holes into the sheetrock with her new climbing tools, at a downward angle so that she could use her feet for motion as well, Ryanne began to make her way to the top of the wall. Several times her feet would slip—as she wore only old sneakers with worn-down treads that the turtles had scrounged up for her—but each time Ryanne hung on to her "grappling hooks" and continuously rose to the challenge. It was a good thing she'd participated in the turtles' training exercises or she'd never have made it to the first ten feet, much less the whole three stories.

Once she reached the ventilation shaft, and crawled inside it, Ryanne stared down the long dark tunnel.

"Ah…this would be _so_ much easier of I didn't have to do this by myself!" She whined.

However, she knew as well as anybody that whining did absolutely nothing. She made her way forward. Luckily, it didn't feel too cramped, seeing as how two bulky turtles made it through without any issues.

Having no idea where to go, but assuming that heading downward would work, Ryanne began forward. She called on her gift, asking her precognition which way to go whenever she came to an intersection of shafts. She let her sense of 'familiarity' lead her. Unfortunately her precognition never acted as a warning signal, thus Ryanne shrieked in surprise when the tunnel became a sudden drop.

Forcing back the panic that tried to spew out of the closet she'd put it in, Ryanne fell a good twenty feet before she gathered the wits to jam her feet into the sides of the shaft, breaking her fall.

"Whew!" she sighed in relief.

The rest of the way became a piece of cake. She slipped once more, and fell for a long way, then she jammed her feet in again. And slipped. It certainly was not her day!

She finally put some extra steam into her 'breaking system' and was able to stop herself ten feet before she hit the bottom of the shaft for the vent. That was when she put both feet on one side of the shaft, and began to "walk" down very slowly. Her rear hit the bottom of the shaft. Crawling towards the light (the only way _to_ go anyway, as the shaft made an L, the only two directions being up, and to the left) Ryanne found herself at the end of the shaft-tunnel.

As she looked out of the grille in front of the opening, Ryanne guessed she was ceiling height once more. And judging by the pipes, she had made it to the basement. She hoped to high heaven that the guards Raphael had taken out were still unconscious or gone.

Carefully, she lifted the grille open. She looked downwards first. Debris, and cardboard boxes, piles of junk, and huge mounds of guards littered the basement floor. Luckily for her, these guys were still unconscious.

Ryanne found a nearby pipe and jumped for it, managing to grab onto it. She hung there for a second or so, judging the distance between herself and the floor. Then she let herself drop. A lucky guard found himself to be the padding between Ryanne and the cement floor, after she had fallen from fifteen to twenty feet. With a satisfied smirk, Ryanne pulled herself to her feet, and dashed toward the corner she'd seen on the camera screen. The hidden door, still ajar like a gaping mouth, beckoned her forward.

Ryanne dashed down the dark stairwell, and into the tunnel. She spotted the closed metal door instantly. However, she completely missed the man behind her holding a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

He calmly put a restrictive arm around her chest, and stuck the needle into her own arm, while saying "Welcome home, my child. I've been waiting for you."

Without so much as a whimper, Ryanne fell to the floor.


	5. Chapter 5

Leonardo woke with a supreme headache. "Ugh…" he moaned.

Slowly opening his eyes, Leonardo found himself to be pinned against a wall, held up by a leather strap around his chest, his ankles, and wrists, his arms pulled overhead. He looked over to his left, and found his brothers to be in the same predicament. But they hadn't as yet regained consciousness. He closed his eyes once again, wishing to fall back asleep. His head felt as though somebody were pounding a nail dead center into his forehead.

Once again he opened his eyes, taking a look around the room. The dim light allowed him to recognize a bulky shape in the center of the room… a tall table? Whatever it was, it seemed to have a figure lying on top of it, covered with a thin blanket. Leonardo also spotted the door, to his left as well, on the wall opposite him.

A groan to his immediate left brought his attention back to his brothers. Raphael had apparently just come back to the land of the living, and found that he'd rather just stay dead. Leonardo looked down the line. He stood at the head of the line, Raphael being in the middle, Donatello next, and Michelangelo last.

"You ok, Raph?" Leonardo asked.

"Yeah," Raphael said bitterly. "Peachy."

Another groan let Leonardo and Raphael know that Michelangelo had just joined them.

"Man, I've got a majorly bad headache…" He mumbled.

"Join the club," Raphael said.

Leonardo began to twist his wrists a bit against their bonds. "I wonder if these things will give a bit…"

The leather strap was fastened pretty tight… they wouldn't give at all.

"Why couldn't I have just stayed asleep?" That was Donatello. Of course, he'd be the one to awake speaking full sentences, and not revert back to Neanderthalithic grunts and groans.

"Yo Donny, glad you could join us on, Who's Fault is it Anyhow?" That was Mikey. He seemed to be taking this a little hard, and felt extremely irritable.

"How is this _my_ fault?" Donatello queried, getting defensive.

Raphael, feeling inclined to join Michelangelo's opinion said, "What? Too hard to assume that possibly we might run into a trap?" He taunted, "Couldn't have just scanned around a bit, perhaps for some possible harmful gasses, or booby traps, or—"

"Knock it off!" Leonardo interrupted. "We've got other problems to worry about than pointing fingers. We need to find a way out of here."

"Right, Leo." Michelangelo rolled his eyes. "I'll just use my magic wand to get loose and…"

Suddenly the door opened. An audible click sounded, followed by blinding light. All the turtles cried out as the pain of their eyes trying to suddenly adjust became doubled with their headaches.

"Welcome, guests." Said a silky smooth voice. "I have indeed been anxious to finally be able to speak to you."

Still squinting from the light, the turtles' eyes adjusted just enough to allow them to view a silhouette of a figure in the doorway. Tall, and rather gangly.

"Creepy…" Michelangelo muttered under his breath. His other three brothers had been thinking the same thing.

The creepy silhouette continued. "I have it on excellent authority that you four are extremely intelligent for your species… fortunately for me, not _too_ intelligent."

The four brothers looked at each other. Something about the way he said that made their skins crawl. The man entered into the room, the light giving the silhouette depth and shape. His face was sallow, dark circles underneath his sagging eyelids indicating that this man either slept less than he should have, or led an extremely stress-filled life… or both. His pale face looked like a white sheet, and to top off the ghoulish look this man portrayed, the whites of his eyes had a yellowish hue, and his fingernails were in desperate need of a clip… all yellow, jagged, and long. The man wore a white laboratory overcoat, as if he had just been working on a science experiment in some science lab. As he moved in, he made his way to the center of the room, and laid a hand on the tall table-like thing.

Donatello gasped. "Ryanne…"

Indeed it was some sort of restraining table. And on top of it, with one of those odd devices attached to her temple, lay Ryanne.

The man looked down, stroking Ryanne's cheek in the process. "Yes. Ryanne. My little angel sent from heaven."

The steam visibly rose from all four turtles' ears. The lecherous man quite frankly made Michelangelo want to throw up. All of them felt almost brotherly protectiveness to this girl they had come to enjoy.

As if unaware of the tension in the room, (in truth he felt it, and enjoyed the power he felt) the man continued. "We must however discuss other far more pressing matters than my Ryanne's special little abilities."

"Like what?" Leonardo growled.

"Like what in the world I'm going to do with you."

"You could just let us go." Michelangelo suggested. "I like that idea!"

The man chuckled in good humor, shaking his head. "But now that I have you, you might imagine how curious I am about your… how should I put it? Uniqueness."

Donatello didn't like where this was going. "You mean you're going to experiment on us?"

The man stroked his chin, smiling an eerie smile. "Perhaps."

Ryanne shifted on the table she laid upon.

The man looked at her for a second or so. "You know, if it weren't for Ryanne, I would never have been able to lure you here. She performed perfectly, wouldn't you say?"

Leonardo shook his head. "Don't even try turning her into the enemy! She's not the one who chained us to a wall!" His anger began to grow.

The man ignored Leonardo. "I would never have even known…" The man's voice had a sing-song tone, as he stroked her hair lovingly. He mentioned, "Actually, I might use you the way I had first imagined. Your interesting display upstairs gave me an idea." He paused, letting his victims ponder just a bit on what his idea could possibly be. He really seemed to be enjoying this.

He continued. "You four seem to somehow be adept in martial arts, and the ability to get into places you shouldn't. It would be wonderful if you decided to work for me." His voice asked. His eyes told them that it wasn't an offer. It was a command.

This made all of them laugh in spite of themselves. "Yeah right." Raphael said for all of them.

"Uh uh uh." He scolded as a parent would some unruly children. "Don't forget that I have you in my power. Believe me when I say that killing you would certainly be a shameful waste, but I promise I wouldn't loose too much sleep."

Ryanne shifted again. Donatello looked at her closely, and noticed her eyes moving rapidly underneath her eyelids. Donatello thought she looked like she was awake, but that she was pretending to still be asleep. Luckily the creepy man was looking at the four turtles with narrowed eyes.

He walked up to Raphael, "If I told you that your brothers' lives depended upon the success of the task that I will set before you, I'm sure that your willingness to cooperate would greatly increase."

Raphael narrowed his eyes right back at the man. "Letting me go would be your biggest mistake."

The man wasn't toying anymore. He slammed a hand against the wall beside Raphael's head. Raphael didn't blink. "Don't even think about going to your lair for your pathetic pet rat. I know where it is, I know how to get in, and I'm having it watched!"

To say that this news came as a little bit of a shock would have been an understatement.

"How?" Donatello asked.

The man backed away from Raphael. His condescending demeanor back on his face, his composure gained. He smiled. " I'm glad you asked."

He began to pace in front of them. "It would have been horrendous stupidity on my part if I had allowed Ryanne to leave without a way to get her back, and with you in tow. These devices—" he walked over to Ryanne and laid a finger on her temple, on the silver device attached to it, "—were to ensure her safe arrival. They had been programmed to make her obey."

"By torturing her!" Leonardo burst out.

The man shook his head. "Call it 'shock therapy.'"

Donatello watched Ryanne for a reaction. Her face momentarily went dark, and then relaxed back into a neutral position. He hoped she wouldn't do that too often!

The man continued. "Any refusal on her part to do as I had programmed would result in an unpleasant experience for her." He let that hang in the air for a second. As if it were possible, Raphael became more angry, looking as if he were slowly becoming a fireball of anger on the inside.

The man finished. "Obviously, you discovered the device's second function. Even after it had been removed from Ryanne, and shut down, I knew the last place she'd been before the devices had been shut off. I simply had some well-paid spies locate her last known coordinates, and discovered where you lived. After that is was a simple matter to bug the place."  
"Why didn't you just have us captured then and there?" Donatello asked.

The man smiled wryly. "You must know better than anybody that it's easier to kill a turtle after it comes out of its shell. As soon as I realized the objective of Ryanne was to come back to me, I made some preparations. The building's alarm system was to be re-routed to an alert module on my belt. Guards to try to keep you from getting in, and also to capture you."

"Yeah, but I foiled _that_ one!" Raphael said with a smug smile.

The man shook his head. "And to back them up I placed the remote receiver device for Ryanne in a place where I could put a trap. Even _you _didn't escape, oh naïve one. Despite what you think, you really are not all that hard to capture."

Leonardo became aware of something dangling on the man's belt. A key. He looked at his wrists. The leather had a metal lock which was situated at the outside of his wrists. Even if he were to get a key, he could not unlock his own wrists. He looked over at Raphael. He seemed to be trying to contain a raging storm within his body. Raphael's wrists were four inches away… maybe if he had the key in his left hand, he'd be able to unlock Raphael's right wrists.

The man stood for a second, and then smiled. "You can't win now."

Donatello wasn't listening, because his heart was just about to leap into his mouth. Ryanne opened her eyes, and moved her head! Crazy girl! Donatello tried to school his face to remain neutral, but he worried that Ryanne wouldn't try to keep pretending to sleep. He hoped she would just wait until the man left, and try to free them later.

But Ryanne had no such plans. In one burst, she leaped from the table to the floor, and using a move that Master Splinter had taught her, did a spinning kick, catching the surprised man in the head, bringing him down to the ground.

Leonardo called, "Ryanne, there's a key hanging on his belt!"

Ryanne tried to go for it, but the man was back on his feet.

"Ryanne, my dear, you will be punished for this." He lifted up a black device, upon which was attached a button. He moved to press it.

Ryanne swiftly reached up and pulled the device on her temple out, and also the one that had been replaced on her side. "You have to catch me first!" She kicked again with a vengeance, this time at his hand. The black device flew from his hand, and hit Michelangelo in the face.

"Ow!" He said, "Watch where you're flinging things, Ry!"

"Sorry, Mikey!" She said.

This time, the man was really pissed off. He growled at her and came toward her menacingly. Ryanne backed away.

"Get him, Ry!" Leonardo called. The others began to cheer for her as well.

The man came in to grab her around her neck. She ducked, and brought her shoulder to bear at his middle, causing him to do a flip over her shoulders, landing on his back. Ryanne straightened a look of triumph on her face. She raised her arms. In one of her hands she held aloft the belt that the man had been wearing with the key.

Ryanne walked over to Leonardo, to unlock his wrists, so that he could get the rest of his brothers free, but the man stood up once more. This time he wasn't trying to go for Ryanne. He was headed out the door.

"Here Leo," Ryanne said, handing him the belt.

Leonardo grasped it, and said, "Ryanne, don't go after him. He probably has more tricks up his sleeve."

Ryanne said, "Not this time." She ran out the door to find the man that caused her life to fall apart at the seams.

Leonardo worked his fingers, and was able to unlock Raphael, and once Raphael got himself free, it was no time at all until all four of the turtles were unlocked, and running for the door. They found themselves back inside the room they had been trapped and gassed in. The main sliding door leading to the tunnel opened for them. They exited into the tunnel, and stopped short.

Ryanne had found herself in the midst of seven pretty angry looking guards. The same guards that Raphael himself had taken out. A thug went to grab her hair. She blocked his hand with a swift strike, and followed that with her other hand which connected with his torso. All that really did was serve to make him even grumpier. The creepy man was nowhere to be seen.

Ryanne spotted the four turtles, and made a hasty retreat to her friends. "He went up the stairs, and before I could get there these guys came down." She explained.

Michelangelo said, "I got dibs on that one dude!" He made his way up the stairs calling in a sing-song voice, "Oh evil creepy scary dude! Come out come out where ever you are!"

He disappeared through the entranceway. That left Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael. Raphael smiled.

"Dibs on these guys."

One of the guards did a double take, and then said, "Oh no, not you again!"

"You better believe it!" Raphael said, as he single handedly took out all of them.

As he blew off his steam on the ugly and dumb guards, Leonardo, Donatello, and Ryanne watched on.

"Don't you want to fight, guys?" Ryanne asked.

"Naw," Donatello said, "It seems like Raphie boy here needs to blow off some more steam than I do."

Leonardo didn't say anything.

Once Raphael was done having his fun, the four of them went up to the top—well to basement level, at least—to find out where Michelanglo had gotten. Little did they know, Michelangelo knew exactly where that one dude had been hiding. He was just toying with him a bit. Following his every move, Michelangelo the shadow-wraith made just enough noise to make the goulish guy jumpy. He'd make odd sounds with his voice, then laugh maniacally, much as a phantom would. Needless to say, the man was near a meltdown by the time Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Ryanne had caught up. It was no trouble at all to get the guy to stand still while they scrounged up all the evidence they needed to get the guy locked up for life. They left him blubbering in the room they had been locked up in.

This is where they had to come to the hard part. Saying goodbye.

The plan was to let Ryanne call the police. All she had to do was show them those devices she'd worn, and lay the blame on the dude inside the room. The police would find the rest on a desktop icon that Donatello had created with all the incriminating evidence. Video's of 'shock therapy' sessions with Ryanne, and other exploits that none of them, until that night, had known about. The turtles would be above, watching to make sure everything was going according to plan. The man would get sent to jail, and Ryanne would be able to return back to her family.

Ryanne was sitting at a chair near the computer consol, looking at all the precognitive dreams on the gigantic screen. Her eyes were dry, but she looked very depressed.

The four turtles gathered behind her. Donatello finally piped up, "We're gonna miss you, Ryanne."

"Yeah," Leonardo said, "You finally got your room, and now look. You're moving out."

Ryanne turned around. She smiled. "But I'm finally going home. After so long." She was silent for a minute, and then said, "Hey, I'll still come and visit sometimes."

All five of them fell silent, sharing a tender moment. Then Michelangelo spoke up. "Awe, c'mon! Can't we keep her?" He was trying to lighten the moment.

This earned a big laugh from Ryanne, and a slap over the head from Raphael.

Rapahel said, "Seriously though. Anytime you feel like it, you can come stay at our pad. You know where the warehouse is."

"Thanks, Raph. I'll definitely come."

* * *

Two weeks later, after a particularly grueling training session from Master Splinter, the turtles found their restful sleeps awakened by a clattering noise. Master Splinter was up in an instant, and the turtles a half second behind him.

It was Ryanne. She had apparently found the candelabras in the dojo, bumbling into them, and knocking them over with unconscious abandon. She was sleepwalking again.

"She's baaack!" The four turtles said, laughing.


End file.
